Jayajit Chakraborty
Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence at the Bren School. He recently served as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board and inaugural EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee, and chaired the EPA EJScreen Review Panel.
About
Email: jchakrab@ucsb.edu
Office: 4520 Bren Hall, UC Santa Barbara
Website: https://bren.ucsb.edu/people/jayajit-chakraborty
Research & teaching interests:
●Environmental justice ●Climate justice ●Vulnerability to hazards and disasters ●Racial/ethnic disparities ●Disability studies ●Health equity ●Food security ●GIScience ●Spatial analysis ●Quantitative Methods
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Google Scholar global ranks:
#1 in Environmental Hazards
#2 in Environmental Inequality
#2 in Urban Environments
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Included in the prestigious Stanford-Elsevier ranking of the world’s most cited researchers who are in the top 2% in their academic subfield, based on both career-long citations and annual, single-year citation (2019-2025) data.
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Sage Policy Profiles: 400+ citations in 280+ policy documents worldwide.
Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp Endowed Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. He was previously a Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology and the Director of the Socio-Environmental & Geospatial Analysis Lab at the University of Texas, El Paso. He has also been a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) and a visiting scholar in the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). He has a M.S. in Urban & Regional Planning and Ph.D. in Geography, both from the University of Iowa.
Dr. Chakraborty recently served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Utilizing Advanced Environmental Health and Geospatial Data and Technologies to Inform Community Investment and coauthored a NASEM report on Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice. He is currently serving as a member of the Community Health & Environmental Research Initiatives Committee of the Health Effects Institute (HEI). Dr. Chakraborty has served as member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, and the inaugural EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee. He also chaired the Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's EJScreen Mapping & Screening Tool and served as a lead discussant on the EPA Environmental Justice Science & Analysis Review Panel.
Dr. Chakraborty’s research interests encompass a wide range of concerns related to the social dimensions of environmental and climate change, with an emphasis on environmental justice and community vulnerability to hazards, risks, and disasters. His scholarship has examined environmental and social inequalities at multiple geographic scales in the US, US-Mexico border, Australia, and India. His research utilizes a variety of methods, including applications of GIS and spatial statistical techniques, as well as social surveys and mixed methods approaches.
Dr. Chakraborty has published more than 4 books and 150 articles/chapters, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice and a chapter for the US Government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). He has been a principal/co-principal investigator for over 30 sponsored projects, which include grants awarded by the US EPA, US National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, US Department of Treasury, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, American Association of Geographers (AAG), Australian Research Council, and other agencies. Dr. Chakraborty is a recipient of multiple awards, including the AAG E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award, University of Texas System Faculty STARs Award, NSF Geospatial Fellowship for Advancing COVID-19 Research and Education, and the UCSB Bren School's Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.
Recent News
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Received the UCSB Bren School's 2026 Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award at the Bren Commencement Celebration. This is a student-voted honor presented annually to a faculty member who seamlessly combines instructional excellence with outstanding scholarly dedication.
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Recent journal articles on social vulnerability to extreme heat and wildfire have been featured in Scientific American, Bren School News, and Wildfire Today,
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Invited speaker for the convening: At the Intersection of Disability Justice and Environmental and Climate Justice: Next Steps in Considering Impacts on People with Disabilities in Environmental and Climate Decision-Making in the panel session on What Data is Available for Use in Decision-Making.
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Received the 2026 E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award from the American Association of Geographers (AAG). This annual award recognizes AAG members who have made truly outstanding contributions to geography due to their special competence in research or teaching.
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Invited speaker in the Climate Change and Health Seminar in the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, Yale School of Public Health.
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Listed again in the prestigious Stanford-Elsevier ranking of the world’s most cited scientists who are in the top 2% in their academic subfield [Geography], for both lists: career-long citation history and most cited scholar in the latest calendar year (2024).
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Featured speaker and panelist in the inaugural Environmental Justice Data and Mapping Symposium in Houston, Texas.
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Selected to serve as a Member of the Community Health & Environmental Research Initiatives (CHERI) Research Committee of the Health Effects Institute (HEI).
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Invited panelist/speaker for special session on Environmental Justice, Cumulative Impacts, and Environmental Decision-Making at the 10th CEEJH Environmental Justice Symposium, organized by School of Public Health, University of Maryland.
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Coauthor of new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Consensus Study Report on Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools on Environmental Justice (2024); highlights are available here.
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Coauthor of groundbreaking commentary on advancing disability-inclusive climate research and action, climate justice, and climate-resilient development in The Lancet Planetary Health [impact factor: 25.7].
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Selected to serve as a lead discussant on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Environmental Justice Science and Analysis Review Panel.
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Appointed as a Professor and inaugural Mellichamp Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Coauthor of chapter on Built Environment, Urban Systems, and Cities in the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) --the US Government’s premier report on climate change impacts, risks, and adaptation.
Latest Publications
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Chakraborty J, Oyler H, Le K, Cardelle J, and Wong K, 2026. “A Spatial Dataset for Identifying Disadvantaged Communities Facing Cumulative Climate and Economic Burdens in the United States” Environmental Research: Climate, https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/aea636.
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Chakraborty J, 2026. “Environmental Epidemiology” In Taylor D E (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071908006.
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Chakraborty J, 2026. “Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool” In Taylor D E (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071908006.
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Chakraborty J, 2026. "Using a Multivariate Local Indicator of Spatial Association to Analyze Disparities in Cumulative Air Pollution Exposure in the U.S.” Environmental Research Communications, https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ae8e5a.
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Chakraborty J, 2026. “Unregulated and Unequal: Environmental Justice and the GKN Aerospace Incident in Orange County, California” Environmental Justice, https://doi.org/10.1177/19394071261466182.
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Chakraborty J and Adam R, 2026. “Extreme Heat and Social Vulnerability: Thermal Inequities along the United States-Mexico Border” Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae8288.
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Chakraborty J and Saroka S, 2026. “Exploring the Spatial Association Between Wildfire Risk and Social Vulnerability in the Continental U.S.” International Journal of Wildland Fire, 35(4), WF25244; https://doi.org/10.1071/WF25244.
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Chakraborty J, Collins T W, and Grineski S E, 2026. “Using a Spatial Statistical Approach to Assess Cumulative Environmental Burdens for Public Housing Developments in the United States.” Environmental Justice, 19(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/19394071251365422.
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Chakraborty J, and Koul S, 2025. “Environmental Injustice” In Bennett G and Goodall E (eds.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability, Palgrave Macmillan: Cham; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40858-8_496-1.
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Schober G S, Chakraborty J, Castillo K, and Moya E M, 2025. “Assessing Food Pantry Usage and Distance to a Food Pantry in El Paso County, Texas” International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, 16(1), 1-18; https://doi.org/10.4018/IJAGR.385015.
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Chakraborty J and Saroka S, 2025. “Social Disparities in Extreme Heat Days across U.S. Public Schools” SSM – Population Health, 101835; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2025.101835.
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Wholeben M, Cheon H, Goodson A, Chakraborty J, Salazar G, and McCreary R, 2025. “Understanding Interpersonal Violence Incidence in a U.S.–Mexico Border Community: A Geospatial Approach” Journal of Forensic Science, 21(4), 222-230; https://doi.org/10.1097/jfn.0000000000000532.
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Chakraborty J, 2025. “Using Local Indicators of Spatial Association to Analyze the Environmental Justice Implications of Ambient Air Pollution in the United States” Environmental Justice, 18(1), 57-67. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2023.0017.
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Chakraborty J, 2025. “Heatwave Frequency and Disability Status: Thermal Inequities in the U.S. South” Disability and Health Journal, 18(1), 101665; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2024.101665